I recently turned the tapered fruit bowl shown but had no way to hold it in the lathe to have it’s bottom cleaned so I borrowed a Cole chuck (a Nova chuck with Cole jaws fitted) then remembered the thread that Jim posted a while back showing how he made a Longworth chuck, I decided then and there to make one.

Because there are 57 annotated photographs in this tutorial I decided to only post it as a pdf. Because the last several posted pdf’s via Google Docs (the only way to post them on this forum) dramatically downgraded the quality of the photographs, I’m posting here a link to the thread on big brother forum, routerforums.com. You may need to open an account in order to see the thread but if so it is FREE of any charges!

Whilst I’ve been told that the router chuck shown in the photograph has been around for quite some time, I have only recently become aware of it. Waiting for it to arrive reminded me of my childhood, waiting patiently for Christmas morning to arrive. Well guys, I wasn’t disappointed, This chuck has to be on a par with the invention of the PLUNGE router and SOFT START/VARIABLE SPEED. We can all now put those spanners into our general tool boxes, no longer being required to fit and remove bits from our routers. There are at present four versions of this MUSCLECHUCK and fortunately for me version #4 fits my main router, the Makita 3612C. It is an absolute pleasure to change bits using only a half turn of an Allen key. I received mine just in time for a BIG routing project (I’ll post a photo-shoot of it next week) and it performed perfectly, there is no way that a bit can come loose. I also got a 1/4” and 8mm reducer sleeve but when I changed from a 1/2” bit to a 1/4” one I forgot that I had the proper sleeve and wondered why I couldn’t fully tighten the bit. Once my mind got back into the right gear I used the MUSCLECHUCK sleeve and a half turn of the Allen key was all that was required.I’m sure that members will have difficulty understanding why I’m going on like this, the reason is that routers are my favored tool and this invention is the future of routers. I defy anyone to buy one and not agree with me!

I recently posted a link to a series of photographs showing how my shed was. Here is a link showing how a week’s hard work has transformed it. A Google account, which is FREE is required to view, this is because it’s for the eyes of forum members only.

In order to get the best out of my new mini lathe and bed extension I’ve carried out a major re-organisation of my shed. All the wood which was taking up valuable space has gone into my separate woodshed and to make room there I got a friend to load up his big truck and take away for firewood every piece that I know will never get used. Hopefully tomorrow I will start to make a mess!

I know that there are many jigs out there for doweling and mortising, however whilst the principle of this one is far from new, I haven’t seen one that can sit comfortably on a 1” piece that would most likely be used making face frames etc.It has since occurred to me that if the two pieces of wood were perhaps about 1.5” wide by 3” deep and mounted on a sub base with a 3/8” bolt, then it wouldn’t be necessary to run it along the bench. It could I suppose be further improved by adding compression springs to ensure a constant friction so that when the router is sat on the wood or door, when the router is twisted the whole assembly remains perfectly stable with the bit at right angles to the wood. Here is the link to the project.

Whilst there is nothing wrong with my present router circle jig, I made it many years ago and thought that it was time for a new prettier one. The beauty of this design is that it can be adjusted smoothly by sliding then locking the router after the fulcrum pin has been screwed into an appropriate threaded hole. For those without metalworking facilities a hard wood block like on my older one is fine. I use an assortment of different length 1/4” pins and these can be made from coach bolts by cutting the thread to a suitable length and the same for the smooth section. Here is a link to the project

I mentioned when I replied to the bottle balancer that Jim Jakosh recently posted that I had been struggling with drilling a hole at an angle. Jim showed a jig that he had made for this purpose so I set about making something similar. It worked, but it was very slow going with a lot of heat generated, this led me to think of an easier way to produce a working bottle balancer. Because this was an experiment, I didn’t produce one of my usual photo-shoots.

This final working model ended up being made from an off-cut of Melamine coated MDF 4” wide and 9.5” long by just 5/8” thick. I drilled a 40mm hole perpendicular to the surface with it’s centre 2” from the top. Using a 45° bearing bit in the table, I routed a chamfer on both sides. The bottom was cut at 35° and the fancy edge was also routed on the table. The red was wood dye and the rose a transfer as used by kids as mock tattoos. Unfortunately I applied it whilst the lacquer was still tacky, a BAD idea, it took all the sparkle out of it. I have tested many different bottles, sizes, shapes and weights with surprisingly perfect results.

I recently posted a photograph of a brightly coloured bird, a “28” feeding from what was just a dish suspended from three flimsy chains. At about the same time Jim Jakosh and Thomas from the Netherlands posted shots of bird feeders that they had made, this made me realise the OUR birds were being deprived of being able to feed in comfort! I was therefore compelled to do something about it, and here is the result, nothing fancy, no plans drawn up, as with most of my projects that don’t include templates, they just evolve as I go along! https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B13jQxW5N_l9Q3FySWMzd1hVLWs/edit